Ann, thanks for a great slideshow. It is both amazing and a tribute to all the engineers and technicians that brought this project to fruition. A 30 year run of the basic arm and improvements made during the long deployment make this an exceptional feat. I'm sure the new NGC will be equally impressive.

Rob, I haven't seen any robotics research coming from Canada except for the Canadarm. OTOH, the Canadarm has been a massive, 30-year project commanding a lot of resources and many, many different technologies. It's also been vital to the functioning of both the shuttle and the space station.

TJ, the blue supports in the first photo weren't identified. I would think that the answer to your question about the end effector's history is available on the web. The Canadian Space Agency's website is pretty extensive, and there's also this source:http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com

Ann, if you mean Mcdonnel Douglas, then the answer is no. One thing that was nice at the MacDonald Dettwiler facility in Vancouver was that Friday's were beer days. At the end of the day everyone would get together in the cafeteria and the beer cooler would be unlocked. There was a great selection of good Canadian beers and we would all have two or three and socialize. It was a lot of fun.

Nice slide show, Ann. Since you have covered tons of stories regarding robotics, I'm curious as to how Canada stacks up against the robotics that are getting developed here in the U.S., particularly by the military. Is Canada a contender?

A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Co. quietly announced that it was rolling out a new wrinkle to the powerful safety feature called stability control, adding even more lifesaving potential to a technology that has already been very successful.

It won't be too much longer and hardware design, as we used to know it, will be remembered alongside the slide rule and the Karnaugh map. You will need to move beyond those familiar bits and bytes into the new world of software centric design.

People who want to take advantage of solar energy in their homes no longer need to install a bolt-on solar-panel system atop their houses -- they can integrate solar-energy-harvesting shingles directing into an existing or new roof instead.

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